


Just By A Second

by lostariels



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-09-30 13:06:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10163657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostariels/pseuds/lostariels
Summary: An alternate version of Lena falling off the balcony at L-Corp where Kara is a second too late.Or the spidergwen death parallel nobody asked for.





	1. Chapter 1

            Kara heard crashing sounds in the background.

 

            “Lena?” Kara asked, wondering what on earth she was doing to create that much noise.

 

            _“Stay back!”_ came Lena’s distant voice.

            “Lena?” Kara asked again, panic setting in when she didn’t get a reply.

 

            She was off in a heartbeat, tearing the clothes from her body and exposing the S on her chest.

 

            “Kara, where are you going?” Mon-El asked, grabbing her by the arm to stop her.

 

            “It’s Lena, something’s wrong,” Kara answered, throwing her glasses in the direction of the sofa as she struggled against Mon-El’s grip.

 

            “Hold on a second, you can’t just go racing off after her whenever she needs your help,” Mon-El argued, turning Kara’s head so she was facing him.

 

            “Let go,” Kara yelled, wrenching her head away from his touch, twisting in his grip.

 

            “Kara!” he argued, shaking her slightly.

 

            “I care about her, I- I love her,” Kara admitted, not caring about the shock that flickered across Mon-El’s face. Her only focus right now was on Lena.

 

            “Now let me go right now or I’ll never forgive you if something happens to her,” Kara hissed, finally pulling away from him as he released her.

 

            Shooting through the window without a second thought, she raced towards L-Corp as fast as she could. Telling herself not to panic, she sped towards the building, hoping that it was a misunderstanding and that Lena was okay. Kara wanted to kick herself, she should’ve kept a closer eye on her with all this business with her mother. There was no way Lillian would let her daughter meddle in her plans, even if it meant hurting her. “Come on, come on,” she muttered angrily to herself as she pushed herself as hard as she could.

 

            She heard the screaming before she saw the building. Her heart jumped into her throat as she willed herself to go faster.

 

            As she drew nearer she saw the figure falling, and her stomach dropped when she realised that it was Lena. Letting out a yell, Kara pushed herself forward, the wind rushing past her as she raced towards the body flying head over heels as it hurtled towards the ground. Lena was falling too fast, and Kara could feel the fear setting in as she worried that she was too late. She was so close. So close to reaching her, but the floor was rushing up to meet Lena too, and Kara wasn’t sure if she would get there in time.Too close to the ground for Kara’s comfort, her hand encircled Lena’s ankle, yanking her up and away from the ground. She quickly got her arms underneath Lena, carrying her bridal style as they shot up to the balcony of Lena’s office.

 

            “Oh God, that was close,” Kara said breathlessly, lowering them both down to solid ground, “for a second I thought I was too late.”

 

            She looked down at Lena for the first time since catching her, smiling in relief and expecting to see a matching smile on Lena’s face.

 

            Instead she stared into lifeless eyes.

 

            “Lena,” Kara whispered in horror, taking in the blood soaking one side of Lena’s head, trickling down her face from the wound in her head.

 

            “Lena,” Kara choked out, kneeling and cradling Lena’s body to her chest, shaking her gently. There was nothing; no reaction, just a vacant expression.

 

            “No, no, no,” Kara sobbed, her fingers shaking as she gently traced Lena’s cheekbones.

 

            “Please wake up, Lena, please,” Kara cried, sobbing into Lena’s hair, “I need you, I love you.” Those green eyes stared blankly up at her as Kara’s tears dripped down onto Lena’s face.

 

            She let out a gut-wrenching scream, filled with pain and heartbreak.

 

            She was too late.

           

            Just by a second.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so I know it's literally been 6 months, but better late than never, right?

            It wasn’t until a warm hand on her shoulder broke her out of her gut-wrenching sobs that Kara was aware that there was someone there with her. She looked up, trying to focus on the person before her through the tears that wouldn’t stop falling.

 

            It was Alex.

 

            Kara couldn’t hear the words she was saying, but she could see her sister’s lips moving. She was too in shock to focus, too _numb_. She just cradled Lena’s dead body in her lap while she shook, unable to stop thinking about how she was dead. She was dead and it was all Kara’s fault because she hadn’t gotten there in time to catch her. With a start, Kara realised that it wasn’t just her fault – Mon-El had tried to stop her. He had delayed her by a few precious seconds. Seconds that would’ve been the difference between catching Lena in time, and her laying dead in Kara’s arms.

 

            Letting out a roar of anguish, Kara gouged a chunk of concrete out of the side of the balcony with her laser eyes, unable to control her rage and grief. It was all his fault, and by extension, her fault. She should’ve told Lena that she loved her when she had the chance, not cried it to her dead body when it was too late for Lena to hear the words.

 

            She didn’t move until Alex’s hands gently pried her fingers off of Lena, and Kara was too weak to stop her, too helpless to do anything but sit there crying as she watched DEO agents and paramedics crowd around her, trying to bring her back in vain.

 

            “Kara,” Alex’s soft voice said, mindful of the other people surrounding them, “Kara, look at me.”

 

            She looked up at her sister, her face crumpling as she took in the worried brown eyes and the pained look on her face. “It’s my fault,” Kara sobbed, and Alex moved in to wrap her arms around her sister, trusting that she was herself and wouldn’t hurt her in her grief.

 

            “It’s not your fault,” Alex comforted her, stroking her hair as Kara sobbed into her shoulder. “You can’t save everyone, Kara, as hard as you try. I know she was your friend bu-“

 

            “But I love her,” Kara said, her voice cracking. There was no hesitation or doubt in her words, and Alex felt as if the air had been stolen from her lungs. Kara hadn’t spoken a word of her feelings to Lena, and Alex was shocked to hear of it, and she was filled with dread at the admission, for now it was too late. “I loved her, Alex.”

 

            Hesitating, Alex’s mind flashed to Mon-El, and she felt confused but relieved. Of _course_ her sister would never be stupid enough to _actually_ love him, but now the person she truly did love was being fitted into a body bag a few feet away, and Kara watched as the deathly pale face of Lena vanished as the zip was drawn up. She winced, pressing Kara’s face into her shoulder, ensuring that she didn’t see a thing, all the while whispering words of useless comfort into her hair.

 

            It wasn’t until everyone left, taking Lena’s dead body with them, that Kara struggled in Alex’s arms. Letting her go, Alex climbed to her feet, keeping an arm outstretched towards her sister as if she was waiting to catch her if she collapsed. The pain of seeing her sister in so much pain hurt, and Alex felt helpless. The look in Kara’s eyes was blank, as if she wasn’t really there; it was as if some part of her had been shut off. Supergirl was a different person to Kara Danvers – more confident, more self assured and openly brazen – but this was something else. This was _nothing_. Kara felt numb, and she stared down at the pool of blood on the floor, and down at her hands, covered in the same blood as she tried to stem to the bleeding on the side of Lena’s head.

 

            She couldn’t be gone.

 

            _Think, Kara, think,_ she told herself, knowing that she couldn’t accept the possibility that the only person she had ever been _in_ love with was gone. She had to bring her back. There might’ve been something in the Fortress of Solitude, or some other alien technology at the DEO. There had to be _something_.

 

            With a start, Kara realised there was something else she could do. Something difficult and dangerous, but worth the risk if she could bring Lena back. She would risk _anything_ to bring her back, no matter the consequences. Starting towards the edge of the balcony, Kara stopped at the tug on her cape, turning around to look at Alex, who was frowning at her in concern.

 

            “Let me go, Alex,” Kara hoarsely told her, “there’s something I have to do. I-I have to try-”

 

            “You can’t fly like this, Kara,” Alex reasoned with her, “let me take you home. Please.”

 

            “No,” Kara sobbed, “I have to bring her back. Don’t try and stop me, please. You would do it for Maggie.”

 

            Alex dropped the cape, and she opened her mouth, hesitating before closing it and nodding. Wiping at her tearstained face, and letting out a shaky breath, Kara gave Alex a nod and shot up into the sky.

 

\---

 

            She pushed herself as hard as she could, urging herself to go faster and faster, until she could feel the gravitational pull of the rotating earth begin to reverse. It was slow at first, and she kept flying around the globe, trying to propel herself back into time, praying that it would work, and then she found the momentum change, and the earth was picking up speed as it rotated the wrong way. With a hoarse shout of triumph, Kara stopped flying and shot down through the atmosphere, soaking herself as she dived through clouds and feeling the change in pressure as she sped back into the earth’s atmosphere.

 

            As fast as she could, she made for National City, for Lena, muttering to herself as she pushed herself as hard as she could. She couldn’t remember ever flying so fast, or ever being so desperate to, and she pushed herself to the brink of her powers, praying to Rao that she would make it there on time this time.

 

            As the familiar landscape of the city came into view, Kara shot past towering skyscrapers and office buildings, making a beeline for one in particular, which soon came into view. It was late, and the thousands of lights in the city were enough to illuminate the falling figure plunging towards the concrete street far below. With a roar of desperation, Kara pushed herself past the breaking point, everything visible in perfect clarity, including the terrified look of horror on Lena’s face, and the pounding of her heart as she fell to what would’ve been her death if Kara hadn’t been there.

 

            But she was.

 

            She was there that time, and she made it, just by a second, almost body slamming into Lena in her desperation to save her this time. She cradled her up against her chest, one hand protecting Lena’s head, while the other arm went under her knees and held her securely in her arms. Using all of her powers made Kara weak, and she could feel herself faltering as she soared past L-Corp, laughing and crying in relief.

 

            She had done it.

 

            And then she was losing altitude as she felt her powers draining, and Kara spiralled down to the ground below, half-falling as she tried to glide downwards. Lena was only semi-conscious in her arms, the shock of almost plummeting to the ground, and the subsequent save by Kara, too much for her to process, and as the concrete loomed up beneath them, Kara turned onto her back.

 

            She didn’t solar flare until she’d already struck the concrete, causing a crater in the middle of the street as she tore up chunk of the road on impact. Not for a second did she let Lena go, and as she slid along on her back, she gritted her teeth and held Lena tightly, determined not to let her get so much as a scratch. It wasn’t until she came to a stop that Kara felt every ounce of her strength fade, and knew it was going to take her at least a week to recover from this. It could’ve taken a year for all she cared, because as she extracted herself from the gritty dust and crumbling pieces of cement, she stared down at Lena, who was looking up at her in wonder and amazement.

 

            Kara let out a sob of relief, sinking to her knees as her legs threatened to give out beneath her, and she cradled Lena in her arms, brushing the pad of her thumb across one of Lena’s cheekbones. “Lena.”

 

            Reaching up with a shaking hand, Lena cupped Kara’s cheek, “you saved me.”

 

            “Yeah,” Kara said, her voice trembling as she gave Lena a wobbly smile, “I did. I-”

 

            Lena let out a laugh – slightly hysterical and panicked – and she pulled her hand back, covering the hand Kara had pressed to her cheek with her own. “Thank you, Kara.”

 

            “Y-you know?”

 

            “I do.”

 

            Feeling all of the air whoosh out of her lungs, Kara gave Lena a breathless laugh, blurting out her feelings without even thinking, “I love you.”

 

            And Lena smiled widely up at her, “would it be presumptuous of me to say that I know that too?”

 

            Choking on her laugh, Kara shook her head, feeling tears well up in her eyes as she stared down at Lena’s face. She was alive, she was safe, and she was in Kara’s arms. She sat upright, and Kara sagged, feeling warm arms catch her, and then she was in Lena’s arms, and warm lips were pressed against her head.

 

            “Thank you for saving me,” Lena murmured against her hair, and Kara smiled as her eyes started to flutter shut and everything began to turn black as she threatened to fall into unconsciousness. “Oh! Kara! Kara, are you okay? Stay with me.”

 

            “I’m not going anywhere,” Kara sighed, struggling to stay awake.

 

            She heard a sigh of relief. “Good. Now might be a bad time to tell you, but I love you too. I didn’t think I was going to get the chance to tell you, I-I thought you were going to be a second too late.”

 

            _You have no idea_ , Kara silently replied, before tumbling into the darkness, safe in Lena’s arms.


End file.
